The Monitoring Committee approved the updated Indicative Annual Schedule for the planned intakes under the rural development interventions of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas 2023-2027 for 2026.
It provides for an intake under intervention II.D.1 “Start-up aid for the establishment of young farmers in agriculture“ with a budget of EUR 115.77 million, which will be carried out in September-October 2026. The support is aimed at young farmers aged 18 to 40 who are creating or developing their farms. Eligible applicants will be those whose farms have an economic size of over 8,000 to 20,000 euros standard production volume (SVO), and the project activities must be related to the production of agricultural products.
The financial assistance under the intervention is 100% of the eligible costs, with the maximum amount of support for one applicant being 60,000 euros.
The assistance is provided in two payments of 30,000 euros, which provides a starting resource for young farmers to create and develop a sustainable agricultural farm.
In parallel with the support for young farmers, in September-October 2026, a call will also be opened for intervention II.I.1 “Consulting services and increasing advisory capacity“ with a budget of 7 million euros. The funds will provide farmers with access to individual consulting services and expert support for the management and development of their farms.
During the meeting, it was decided to include the new crisis intervention in the indicative schedule, as well as the intervention related to nature in forests. “The receipts for them are expected to be in October and November, and our ambition is to pay them off by the end of the year“, informed Deputy Minister Chakarov.
Additional funds will be transferred to the intervention “Natura 2000 Support for Forests“, which will provide the necessary resources for its implementation over the next two years. The total budget for it will be nearly 36 million euros. The last receipt planned for this year is for the intervention “Start-up aid for establishing new farmers in agriculture“. It does not envisage additional funding, as the available resources are sufficient. To encourage interest, changes in the conditions are proposed, the main one being an increase in the starting grant from 40,000 to 60,000 euros, the amount being in line with the current economic situation and changes in price levels.